Each day a different image or photograph is featured, with an
accompanying caption, which deals with various topics in Earth Science.

Ruins of Machu Picchu

Shown above is a view of the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu 7,710 ft (2,350 m) in the Andes Mountains of Peru. The Inca people, beginning in the mid 1400s, took advantage of this location between the two mountain peaks of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu ("Old Peak" and "New Peak" in the Quechua language) to construct huge structures from the granite rock found here. Machu Picchu was evidently abandoned approximately 100 years later, perhaps due to a lack of water. Elements of the complex continued to be used and some of the terraced fields (click on image for detail) were still in use when the site was revealed in 1911 by Hiram Bingham. It is also possible that the ruins may have been "rediscovered" and plundered in 1867 by Augusto Berns. Photo taken in May of 2008.